How I would use this site

Our vision is to create content that combines a Primer (a short book focused on core ideas), online resources we create and host to extend these ideas and provide tutorials, and links to online sites we do not host that provide working examples.

Most instructors, us included, would supplement such resources with links leading to the work of others.

Our model includes commercial content (the Primer) and resources we offer to anyone. If you are an instructor, these non-commercial resources may be useful in your course even if you use another textbook or no book at all. Here is how we would use our resources if we were you.

Here is also how we use our own resources - we teach at different levels and have different goals. We create what might be called an interactive syllabus. This is just a fancy way of saying we create a web page that provides information and when possible provides links to required and optional resources.

You likely have access to a course management system (e.g., Blackboard) that allows the construction of web pages. If not, we suggest you try Google Sites. Such sites can be quite functional without being elaborate.

Here is a demonstration site that I use in one of the courses I teach.

Our vision of where the publishing industry should go includes a tool for building more advanced versions of the interactive syllabus we propose here. It might be created as a systems of modules available to instructors. They would select the modules they want to use and this collection would then be exported as the reading assignment section of an interactive syllabus. I have the outline of how I would code this system in my head, but work on this project will have to be delayed until the writing is done.

We encourage you to take a look at our non-commercial resources. Do not be put off if the system asks that you register with an email address affiliated with an educational institution. Parts of our site are designed to encourage active participation and one challenge when you try to get everyone involved is spam. All we ask is that we have a way to identify those who have access. If you are a course instructor and your institution uses an email system that is not locally hosted (e.g., Gmail), contact us and we will see if we can fashion a way to provide your students access.